The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux' dates from 1881/1882, but was signed a second time by Whistler, probably in 1891.

Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux', Art Institute of Chicago

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 850).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux', Art Institute of Chicago

A study of Valerie Susan Meux (née Langdon) (1847-1910) for a portrait.

Technique

Composition

Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux', Art Institute of Chicago

Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux, Honolulu Academy of Arts

This is a study of for the portrait Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux y228.

Technique

The marginal butterfly was added at the request of Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) when he bought it in 1891.

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 850); see also Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website (cat. no. 23)..

History

Provenance

• 1891: signed by Whistler for Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), New York dealer.
• 1929: bought on 2 March from Albert Louis Roullier (1858-1920), Chicago art dealer, by Walter Stanton Brewster (1872-1954), April 1929;
• 1933: presented by Brewster to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 850) as "Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux' ".
• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (oil, cat. no. 228) as "Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux' ".

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 165, repr.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Sweet, Frederick A., James McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, 1968.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1984.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 165 (cat. no. 155), repr.

Journals 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'What is a Whistler?', in: Glazer, Lee, Margaret F. MacDonald, Linda Merrill, and Nigel Thorp (eds), James McNeill Whistler in Context. Essays from the Whistler Centenary Symposium, University of Glasgow, 2003, Washington, DC, 2008, pp. 1-18, at p. 12.
• Sutton, Denys, ‘Whistler and Lady Meux’, Journal of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1974, pp. 36-43, p. 39, repr.

Websites

• Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website (cat. no. 23).